Amazon adds unlimited streaming videos to Prime membership benefits

By on Feb 22, 2011 at 10:16 AM
Retail February 22, 2011

If you find yourself frequently purchasing from online retailer Amazon, you probably have been pitched to sign-up for the company’s Prime service before. For a $79 annual fee, Amazon will provide members with unlimited, 2-day shipping on all eligible items purchased along with heavily discounted shipping upgrades (you can get next day shipping with Saturday delivery for just $3.99). Now, to sweeten the pot a bit, the company will also offer Prime members “unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows” from Amazon’s Video On Demand library.

Via a separate press release, Roku has also announced that its Amazon Instant Video channel will be automatically updated to include the new, free feature for Prime account holders.

Not a bad little incentive to get more people on-board with Prime.

[Via Engadget]

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19 Comments

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  • Anonymous

    What is the movie catalog like?

    • Smarmy

      If you follow the link they take you to a list of ‘Prime Eligible’ movies. Currently there are 2,225 listed and from what I can see most are older. A lot like Netflix was the first year really….

  • Zeke

    Doesn’t apply to the student version of prime.

    • serpentor

      I didn’t know they have a student version. how much is it?

  • jk

    If your a prime customer, will I be able to watch video on my Roku or just on the computer?

  • jk

    never mind on the roku, see some info listed on this(didn’t read far enough down).

  • Ricky

    It does not work with the free Prime accounts (the trial versions and the Mom/Dad/Caretaker ones), unfortunately. Oh well…

  • http://www.vgchartz.com SuperChunk

    Anyone know if there is a comparison between Amazon’s service and Netflix? I know its slightly cheaper, but I really want to know what movies are different and if I can access it through my PS3.

  • Bringit

    cool will check it out.

  • http://twitter.com/MattSTKC MattSTKC

    Awesome. I’ve had Prime since it started and I get usually all my large items (electronics, furniture, etc) through Amazon and saved a bundle on shipping. this is just icing on the cake.

  • AB005G

    Quickly looked at the selection- right now you only have access to 2,000 shows/movies, and the choices are not very good right now. I’ll certainly hook up as a current prime member, but until the selection is expanded I don’t think anybody should join prime just for this benefit.

  • DJYammy

    Thanks for the tip. I just signed up back as a primetime member to get it on the 5000 free access to movie streams on my roku box. Hip hip hip amazon ray Ohhhhhhh yeaaa. Netflix watch out I might be canceling my subscription soon lol.

  • http://bit.ly/samirsshah समीर शाह

    Next step Amazon. Give a Kindle free for signing up with 2, 3 or 4 (wherever you can make money) of Prime.

    • Chut Pata

      Well my Indian bro, have you seen Kindle? If yes, are you kidding or you really want streaming on it?

  • serpentor

    It blows my mind they can do this. Netflix is just about as much as the Prime membership for the year.

  • Chut Pata

    I will wait for a Wii app, the way Netflix has.

    • Anonymous

      Unfortunately, the video quality on the wii sucks. I’ve got a Roku XD, and the Netflix picture quality is phenomenal compared to the wii. IMHO, if you have a HDTV, get a Roku, Boxee, web enabled blue-ray player, whatever, as the content really does look that much better through those devices.

  • aland

    Most if not all those movies are available on netflix already… just going through the list is like: seen it, seen it, seen it… not very impressed with the selection.. If Amazon wants me to switch, how about they switch up their content so it doesnt shadow whats already out there…

  • Kevin B

    Was very excited for this as I have a Roku box and have used Amazon VOD before. Much to my disappointment, the eligible video selection is a joke. Netflix streaming-only has a much better catalogue. A search for ‘Mad Men’ yielded ‘Diary of a tired black man’ and ‘Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century’ as eligible videos.

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